


The Stone Menagerie

by MagalaBee



Category: Fire Emblem: Fuukasetsugetsu | Fire Emblem: Three Houses
Genre: Grief/Mourning, Pre-Game Events
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-01-12
Updated: 2020-01-12
Packaged: 2021-02-27 16:13:58
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 990
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/22219852
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/MagalaBee/pseuds/MagalaBee
Summary: In the wake of tragedy, the Fraldarius House became too silent. Felix drifts from room to room trying to fill the silent, but only echoes live in the mausoleum now.
Relationships: Felix Hugo Fraldarius & Glenn Fraldarius, Felix Hugo Fraldarius & Glenn Fraldarius & Rodrigue Achille Fraldarius, Felix Hugo Fraldarius & Rodrigue Achille Fraldarius
Comments: 1
Kudos: 35





	The Stone Menagerie

He wasn’t cold, but he shivered anyway. Waking up this morning, the manor felt too quiet, too still. Felix was used to the soft murmurations of activity always lingering within earshot. Servants fixing the breakfast table, distant conversations about expected guests or the latest summons from Fhirdiad. Sometimes, even, Felix woke up to the sounds of his father training with Gle--

He pulled himself out of bed stiffly. The house seemed colder, despite the mild summer air. He glanced to the window and saw clouds looming over the long back lawn. It would rain today. 

Felix’s footsteps seemed to echo in his room as he walked from the bed to the wardrobe and began to pull on his clothes. He didn’t bother with anything formal. His mother preferred him to wear cravats, like a proper young man, but he left his on the table and settled for his shirt sleeves and a vest that he didn’t bother to button. Half his clothes didn’t fit anyway, he was finally getting his growth spurts.

When he left his room, he could hear some maids shuffling through the parlor with dusters. The soft shushing sounds were enough to keep his feet on solid ground. As long as there was something else to focus on, he wouldn’t feel the urge to scream.

He stomped as loudly as he could on the stairs, falling on the aging wood steps with all his weight and sounding percussive thumps throughout the foyer. Felix heard one of the dusting maids yelp in startle at the sudden noise, and he smirked for just the briefest moment. 

It didn’t last.

Felix saw his mother in the living room, like she always was. She stayed perched on the edge of a chair, looking out the window and holding a book in her lap. It was a book of advanced farming technologies, a subject that his mother cared nothing about. It was her prop for a facade as empty as the house.

“...Good morning,” Felix muttered, wishing with all his might that she would turn her head and look at him. But she didn’t. 

“Mm,” his mother barely made a sound at all, her fingers twitching upward in the weakest excuse for a wave that Felix had ever seen.

His jaw tightened and he didn’t stay to try again. Every morning was the same with her. She kept looking at the horizon, waiting for G--

He stalked down the hallway towards the dining room. The sound of feather dusters had left, the maids had finished their task, and the house was once again as silent as a crypt. So he stretched his legs and let his weight fall more heavily upon the floor. He didn’t make as much sound as he wanted to with a series of tapestry rugs underneath him, but he made enough of a thumping sound to keep his mind from thinking too much.

Whenever he let his mind wander, it ended in the same place.

The dining room was empty, too. Plates of food had been left out, a platter of sausage and bacon, one of poached eggs with pepper, and one of scones dotted with currants under their crust. Felix remembered when they all ate meals together. Now, Rodrigue just kept telling the servants to leave what was prepared out before he went to his office.

His mother wasn’t eating anyway. What would be the point?

Felix ate a piece of bacon and a cold egg before he continued his heavy steps around the house. He heard thunder rumble outside and felt a small gurgle of warped hope in his chest. If he was lucky and the storm broke hard, then the sounds of lightning crashing would shake the foyer chandelier and keep his mind still for a little bit. He wouldn’t have to try so hard today, if it rained all morning.

As he passed by the open door to Rodrigue’s office, Felix hesitated. His shadow stretched through the doorway, bleeding into the dim office light. 

“Son? Is that you?” Rodrigue called in a low voice. He sounded distracted.

Felix didn’t answer.

“Come here, I need to tell you something.”

Felix let out a breath. He walked inside, but not all the way. Felix was careful to stop halfway to Rodrigue’s desk, keeping a small distance. His father was busying himself with the growing piles of papers on his desk. They all came from the same place.

“There’s been more news from the capital,” Rodrigue sighed, never lifting his eyes from the parchment in front of him. He didn’t look at Felix either. “I’ll need to go for an extended stay.”

Felix shivered again, his fingertips felt like ice. “How long?”

“Months. Perhaps the rest of the year.”

“What?!” Felix snapped. “That’s too long! What about mom--”

“I’ll write to check in, but His Highness needs me right now. The kingdom is in dire straights.”

“We need you,” Felix corrected. “Your  _ wife _ needs you, your son n--”

“I don’t have time to debate this with you, Glenn!” Rodrigue shouted.

He looked up then, and both Fraldarius men stared in silence, trapped in the mistake of the moment. Thunder cracked again and the rain broke, falling in heavy droplets against the windows. The growing pitter patter wasn’t enough to stop Felix’s thoughts from tumbling off the ledge and into the grave.

He turned and ran out of the room. Out of the too-quiet house and the facsimile of a shattered family that lived in it. He ran into the storm, letting the rain soak him through. Felix felt heavy, then, stuck to the earth.

Thunder roared again, and Felix looked to the sky and screamed with the gale.

After the thunder settled, he screamed again, letting the trees tremble in the wake of him. Of the sound and fury of his own broken heart.

He kept screamed, until he felt nothing but the hollow and the rain.

**Author's Note:**

> Thank you so much for reading, and I hope you all enjoyed! I know this is some big feels hour, but I had to do it. I love Felix, but his family situation breaks my heart. Poor baby boy...


End file.
